Badge in Azure

“My liege. The power of divine spells came from God. Those who were cast away by God will never be able to use divine spells ever again. This is just common knowledge,” Nicholas’ words attracted the attention of other followers that Saleen brought with him. Every single one of them had a thirst for knowledge. Nicholas’ words had pretty much contradicted himself, and that piqued everyone’s interests.

Nicholas was without doubt, someone cast away by God, yet he was still capable of divine arts.

“But the power of holy masters, does not all originate from God’s blessings. A god like the Lord of Glory is unable to appear on the Myers Mainland personally. Even his double wouldn’t be able to enter this plane, so he looks for agents to spread his faith. The edge that such agents get from this, is that they are able to take a part of the adherent’s power of faith and make it theirs.”

Nicholas laid out the concept in simple terms, so that even swordsman would be able to grasp the idea.

“Such taking of power of faith is allowed by God. What fallen holy masters do is to take such powers originally belonging to God by force and make them into fuel for our skills.”

“Ohhh!”, the mages were astonished. Their understanding of divine arts came exclusively from battles with holy masters. Few holy masters had ever betrayed God and mingled with mages. As such, the mages’ understanding of divine arts were limited to methods to destroy and defend against such spells.

That was the first time they heard Nicholas elaborate on the subject. everyone was astonished that holy masters were able to take powers from God by force.

Humanity had fought against gods in ancient times and won glorious victories, but the immense power gods held was indisputable. Believers were sheep of God, and the holy masters were his slaves. Mages were able to understand at least that much.

“The taking of God’s powers will result in divine punishments. If the Lord of Glory was to be present right now, there would be no doubt that I would end up dead. My soul would be taken away and thrown into purgatories created by God, to suffer for eternity. As such, fallen holy masters will do their best to wipe the faith from the plane where they are at, just so that they suffer less bitter ends.”

“So Nicholas, are you saying that you have no way out?”, Nailisi asked with a smile. She knew what Nicholas was plotting, but she nonetheless had a lot to gain from the old man, so she spoke in his favor.

“The Lord of Glory isn’t known for being forgiving. He is quite the opposite actually. I have betrayed him, and there is no way out of this,” Nicholas answered solemnly.

“You are saying he is wicked then. How so?”, Nailisi played along and continued asking. Her mind was filled with questions regarding the enhancement of the Twelve Notes of Purgatory. Since the Lord of Glory liked punishing his enemies in environments simulating purgatories, it meant that holy masters had in-depth knowledge regarding the subject.

“If the Lord of Glory was a generous one, then holy masters on the plane of the Myers Mainland would have their lifespan lengthened by several times, and powers several orders of magnitude higher than others. They would not be so easily overwhelmed by mages.”

The mages serving Saleen snorted in a disapproving manner. Nicholas continued hastily, “What I’m saying is, with the power of humanity diminished, holy masters should have had the opportunity to gain overwhelming power.”

The winged skeleton asked, “Did the Lord of Glory not wish to have his faith spread far and wide on the Myers Mainland? If his holy masters were powerful enough, the spread of the faith would be far quicker, which in turn would have benefited him.”

“Gods live very, very long lives, they’re almost immortal. The Lord of Glory was reluctant to share too much of his power with his believers, as that would slow his own advancement.”

The mages were dumbfounded at the elaboration. God’s actions were incomprehensible from the mages’ perspective. If the matter was to be left to the mages, they would have made the other choice. They would have granted believers greater power, and thus spreading the faith quicker.

God’s choice, in that case, was less about being stingy and more about being long lived instead.

“The power of faith that can be granted on a plane is limited. If such limits were to be broken, the plane in question would grow weaker. Most interdimensional spaces were created in such ways. The gods rendered these places wastelands and then cast them aside. Living things can hardly exist in such places, let alone civilizations,” Nicholas’ words rendered the mages astonished once again.

The spread of a god’s faith was actually capable of dooming a plane!

Saleen had been to the Hell of God’s Punishments before, and knew well of what interdimensional spaces look like. Said hell was not a creation of the gods, but one which was growing. If a plane was to deteriorate to such levels, it was indeed very unacceptable.

“The Lord of Glory seems to do what he did to be able to avoid having the Myers Mainland suffer the same fate then,” a mage said.

“That would have made no difference. When the faith is spread throughout the entire plane, when most people are praying and offering their souls, the fate of said plane would be set,” Nicholas answered calmly.

“So the holy wars that the pope waged were the Lord of Glory’s decree then?”, Saleen asked and his followers all felt a sense of heaviness in their minds.

“Indeed. That is God for you. Devouring one plane after another. It was precisely because of this that humans waged wars against the gods long ago. The Myers Mainland is a major plane. If it were to crumble, the possibility of restoration would be close to nil.”

“Nicholas, how did you come to know so much?”, Saleen began to have doubts about Nicholas’ background. While he had been a grade-9 holy master, what he told everyone was the core secret of a religion. If such secrets were to be spread out…”No, even if such secrets were to spread, no believers would buy them. The believers’ faith in their gods is blind. Nicholas was a holy master, but not a believer.”

Nicholas held the fallen codex in his hand high, and spoke, “After I had fallen, such contents began appearing in the codex. The Lord of Glory has his enemies. Not just humans, but gods too. These gods attempted to lure his believers away and rob him of his faith. On this plane, the faith of the Lord of Glory proved more powerful, and other gods had no way to intervening. They simply bided their time and waited for their chance.” Nicholas gave a cold smirk and continued, “The Lord of Glory said that there were no other gods but him. That was but a lie. Ever since I have fallen, divine runes of other gods began appearing on the codex, attempting to have me in their fold.”

“So did you join them?”, Nailisi asked out of curiosity.

The air of heaviness that Nicholas had labored to create was reduced to nothing by Nailisi’s question. Nailisi allowed him to mingle with people around Saleen and be considered as one of them, but she would never allow him to be a core figure around her master. “Master is mine alone.” That was Nailisi’s truest thought.

Nicholas was irked, but he was unable to do anything against Nailisi. To put it in a more accurate manner, he needed Nailisi’s help, in order for others to consider one such fallen holy master to be one of their own.

Mages and holy masters were opposite sides of a spectrum. One side was unable to tolerate the other side’s presence. Nicholas’ efforts could easily be reduced to nothing by Nailisi.

“I never dared destroy this fallen codex and I was unable to use it in battle. Doing so would put a clearer mark on myself, allowing other gods to seep into this major plane. Dealing with just the Lord of Glory has already proved to be a tough endeavor. Having more gods joining the fray would simply make a mess out of the Myers Mainland.”

“Well then, Nicholas. What kind of equipment would you need? I will get it sorted out for you,” Saleen did not want to continue talking about the gods. What Nicholas knew was a rough sketch of things. The secrets of God were not things one could simply spread on a whim. He was thinking then, “If the Goddess of Myers is to be revived, would it bring forth the doom of the Myers Mainland?” He had promised the Goddess to spread her faith after all.

It was unknown if Nicholas’ words would prove true, that the source of a plane would be drained by the advent of gods.

“What would become of Myers Mainland if the Goddess of Myers were to be revived?” Saleen had only realized then, that his knowledge of theology had only skimmed the surface of things.

“I’m a fallen holy master, and my arsenal of offensive spells have increased, my spells for healing have decreased. Everyone knows that healing of divine nature is quicker than magic, but at the price is draining a part of the patient’s life. Such divine healing is still necessary under certain circumstances. For that, I would need a healing type equipment.”

“Healing type equipment eh…”

“A Scepter of the Fallen, one that is capable of providing life energies. Patients would only need to pay a very small price for being healed.”

Saleen understood that he had God’s Left Hand, which harbored immense life energies. The armor he crafted for Sika, the Seven Nights longbow, and the quiver crafted for Eleanor, all contained materials derived from the tree of life.

Nicholas was very sensitive to divinity. He had no idea what kind of materials Saleen was using and was not permitted to speak of them in the open. The very reason why he chose a scepter was because it was a piece of equipment very similar to a mage’s staff.

“You’re one sly old man indeed!” Saleen felt exasperated in his mind. The materials for crafting one scepter was well within his means to provide for Nicholas. The old man’s divine healing spells, as the old man himself put it, worked astonishingly quick in battle. It was a speed that could never be achieved with magic.

“A soul bead can be inlaid on the scepter. I would be able to control it easier during battle,” Nicholas decided to lay out his requests blankly. He knew that Saleen had always been generous to his followers.

“No worries, Nicholas. I know what you’d need,” Saleen remembered all the sudden that he still had god’s mulberry and ghost oak tree that he had gotten from Joey. Coupling those two materials with the tree of life, he would be able to make a scepter that was more fitting for someone like Nicholas.

It was no secret that Saleen had entered the core temple, but his contract with the Goddess was something only the few who had entered with him knew. Saleen felt troubled. If what Nicholas said proved to be true, his aid to the Goddess of Myers would be tantamount to bringing about the doom of the plane he dwelled on.

If he was to never complete the contract, his soul would be sealed in that sacred tablet, where he would be locked up for eternity.

That was one difficult decision to make. Saleen knew full well that he was not a noble person, but having to destroy a plane and condemning the Myers Mainland into a place like the Hell of God’s Punishments, was something he would never find acceptable.

“Where can I go to find proof of Nicholas’ words?”